Name a winger who was a vastly better playmaker than goal scorer

[ImporterExporter]

Bert Olmstead. Heavy slant towards play making.

 

[Khomutov]

Artemi Panarin, especially in Columbus.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Sergei Samsonov, especially pre wrist injury.

His ability to stickhandle in the tightest spaces, and seemingly never lose the puck along the boards made him a damn good playmaker. He'd routinely set up on the boards, work into an opening, and thread a pass right on target for an easy goal.

 

[puckpilot]

Ales Hemsky

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Paul Kariya.

 

[koyvoo]

Karyia is to me in the same vain as D Sedin in that he’s not a “vastly better playmaker than goal scorer) as per the thread title.

 

[sr edler]

Paul Kariya.

Perhaps in juniors and the twilight NHL version. Peak NHL version, not even remotely close. Only two players have a single season or seasons with more shots on goal than Kariya, Esposito (1) and Ovechkin (2). Does that sound like a player always looking to pass?

 

[brachyrynchos]

Joe Juneau played wing with Boston (161-51-142-193) mostly with Oates and Neely. Not sure if he played center or wing w/ RPI and Canada, he did play both with Washington, I think, and mostly center with Montreal, I see him listed as a winger with Phoenix. Looked to make the pass the majority of the time.

 

[Rogue Winger]

Already mentioned, but Jagr and Recchi were first names I thought when thinking about retired players.

 

[Troubadour]

Forsberg when he played LW. Someone said Tanguay and they were right.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Perhaps in juniors and the twilight NHL version. Peak NHL version, not even remotely close. Only two players have a single season or seasons with more shots on goal than Kariya, Esposito (1) and Ovechkin (2). Does that sound like a player always looking to pass?

How many Kariya's games you actually saw? I saw many from TV. And i can say this, he was a pure play maker, most of his NHL career.
The goal totals, nor shots on goal from one season tell nothing how he played, he was always pass first guy.

Selänne&Kariya was that time at Ducks, the best two players in the NHL and obviously the best duo as well,
their game worked like a thought, it was like they were one player, not two.

Kariya made the play, Selänne finished them, although....sometimes they switched the roles, made opponents guess,
that's what made their game so special.

 

[sr edler]

How many Kariya's games you actually saw?

I've only seen two NHL games live (NSH vs ANA, NSH vs CHI, in 98–99) (I'm a Euro and live on a different continent) and he was in one of them. For a winger he was a lot in the middle taking shots, even scored a goal. 0 assists on the night.

Seriously though, he led the league in shots twice (once despite only playing 69 games) in his first 4/5 years in the league, which coincided with his peak. That's not a pass first player.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

I've only seen two NHL games live (NSH vs ANA, NSH vs CHI, in 98–99) (I'm a Euro and live on a different continent) and he was in one of them. For a winger he was a lot in the middle taking shots, even scored a goal. 0 assists on the night.

Seriously though, he led the league in shots twice (once despite only playing 69 games) in his first 4/5 years in the league, which coincided with his peak. That's not a pass first player.

Its how he played the game. It wasn't about his stats (sog), BTW. when has it ever been
- you are forgetting rebounds (which are sog as well) Teemu shot tooooooooons of shots, he didn't score every time
they (Teemu&Paul) basically invented the hard shot to pads (toes part) for rebounds thing.
(which isn't even used that much anymore these days, for some reason)

 

[sr edler]

- you are forgetting rebounds (which are sog as well) Teemu shot tooooooooons of shots, he didn't score every time

Are you saying Paul scored a lot of his goals on rebounds? Like... say Andreychuk?

they (Teemu&Paul) basically invented the hard shot to pads (toes part) for rebounds thing.
(which isn't even used that much anymore these days, for some reason)

Do you have any video evidence of this?

 

[Nick Hansen]

Would it be fair to say Prospal? He had some years of good goal-scoring but I remember him as mainly a playmaker. Ended his career nicely with a team-high 30 pts for the Blue Jackets back in the shortened season of 12/13.

Current guy could be Rantanen but his career is still young so we will see about that. Great playmaker any way.

 

[MadLuke]

Kariya was one of the best scorers of the league before is injury with quite the shot, if he was vastly better playmaker that made him quite elite.

kariya goal per games peak:

1996-97 NHL 0.64 (5th)

1999-00 NHL 0.57 (3rd)

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Assist per game:

1996-97 NHL 0.80 (6th)

1998-99 NHL 0.76 (5th)

2002-03 NHL 0.68 (9th)

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Quite similar.

Voracek, Tanguay (he had greats shot percentage too), Stumpel, does Huberdeau play mostly wings ?, Makarov, Sundstrom, Vyborny, Mikael Grandlund

 

[Michael Farkas]

Kariya's ability to score backhand goals was filth dot com. I think he won a major internal bet one time by scoring 20 goals on his backhand in one season...

 

[sr edler]

We're not even necessarily talking about goals here, but shots. The year Kariya had the 4th highest shot totals ever he only scored 39 goals sporting a 9.1 shot percentage. A lot of those shots must have been wolf-in-sheeps-clothing/pad-toe rebound intended (for Selänne to cash in Andreychuk style).

 

[decma]

Bengt Gustafsson
(though he played some C, I think the majority of his time with the Caps was at LW).

 

[Pominville Knows]

I kinda fit the bill. Using H-R adjusted scoring lists i'm surrounded by Geoff Courtnall and Rick Martin for career goals and Steve Larmer and Todd Bertuzzi for career assists.

 

[frisco]

Mats Naslund. Steve Sullivan.

My Best-Carey

 

[Neutrinos]

A playmaker is someone who makes plays, it's not limited to just the players who set-up goals

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Would it be fair to say Prospal? He had some years of good goal-scoring but I remember him as mainly a playmaker. Ended his career nicely with a team-high 30 pts for the Blue Jackets back in the shortened season of 12/13.

Current guy could be Rantanen but his career is still young so we will see about that. Great playmaker any way.

prospal is a good one. cory stillman is another.

i believe both were natural centers who were moved to the wing, similar to tanguay.

 

[mrhockey193195]

First names that came to mind:

Martin Straka
Alex Tanguay
Mark Recchi

EDIT: Prospal and Whitney as well

 

[BobbyAwe]

What about Bathgate? 2:1 assist to goal ratio. Only 3 30 goal seasons. Tied for the Ross with only 28 goals.

Didn't Bathgate play center at times?

 

[VanIslander]

Sergei Samsonov, especially pre wrist injury.

His ability to stickhandle in the tightest spaces, and seemingly never lose the puck along the boards made him a damn good playmaker. He'd routinely set up on the boards, work into an opening, and thread a pass right on target for an easy goal.

Sammy could do EVERYTHING EXCEPT shoot well. He would hit the middle of the goalie's jersey time and again, a clear foot plus away from any scoring space.

I went to Detroit Viper games when he as an 18 year old was the IHL rookie of the year AND defensive forward of the year. He was on my radar and I watched him on tv during his rookie NHL season as a Bruin. Coach Burns loved him and scolded Thornton for the same thing: checking.

Samsonov could skate, check, stickhandle and pass at a high level. He just had no shot.

Note: Though Pronger and Peca were more significant, Sammy deserves some credit for the Oilers Stanley Cup Finals run. It was the last time I recall seeing him. I've wondered what happened to him after that.